Lewis Hamilton and Tony Stewart swap cars at The Glen

"I have spoken to a lot of people during the weekend," insisted Hamilton. "I know all the mergers, the bosses, all the teams. I know Stefano Domenicali ... I know Christian." But he insisted he was happy where he was: "I'm again just very fortunate to be a part of McLaren. It's one of the best teams there, again with great history. We have a car that is capable of winning, as my team mate showed at the weekend."

The Hamilton/Stewart car swap was planned and announced before Kimi Raikkonen - another former McLaren driver - made his foray into the world of NASCAR Trucks and Nationwide series events. The 2007 F1 world champion is now back in Europe with his WRC team and has yet to say whether he will pursue more NASCAR appearances in the future.

In another inter-series car swap event in mid-March this year - this time organised by the Chip Ganassi organisation - former IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon briefly traded cars with NASCAR's Jamie McMurray in an non-publicised event. Dixon ran a stock car at Talladega Superspeedway while McMurray got to try out an IndyCar at Barber Motorsports Park.

'I didn't want to come in," said McMurray afterwards, who drives for Earnhart Ganassi Racing in NASCAR Sprint Cup. "I was excited to drive an IndyCar but I had no idea the experience would be like that. It felt as if I never turned the wheel, it was that smooth."

Ganassi IndyCar driver Dixon found just getting in the most surprisingly challenging part of a stock car. "They're definitely pretty hard to get in and out of," he said at the time. "I thought ours would be more difficult, but you just come from the top and slide. Here you've got to 'Dukes of Hazzard' style and slide through the window. And then get your legs in, and there's things you can hit your head on."

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